He credits the Adult Literacy Council of the Lehigh Valley, where he took his English classes, for giving him the skills he needed to make such a fast start in becoming settled in his new life.

"The program was perfect," says Gonzalez, 22. "It helped me a lot."

The Adult Literacy Center will conduct its 50th graduation ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Allentown's Central Elementary School. About 110 students will receive certificates for completing the program. A local troupe, Hispanic American League of Artists, will perform dances and poetry mingled with folklore.

The literacy center was started in 1977 by the Allentown Area Lutheran Parish. These days, the literacy center graduates two or three classes a year.

During the literacy center's 21 years of existence, more than 7,500 people have taken its courses through to completion, including about 6,000 people like Gonzalez who used the center to learn to speak English.

Gonzalez graduated a few years ago.

The program has grown massively in recent years. When the center's executive director, Linda McCrossan, joined the organization in 1984, the program served fewer than 100 people a year.

Last year, 856 people completed programs, including 550 people who learned English as a second language. About 110 people were turned away because the classes filled up.

"We're filled up in almost the first week or two of open enrollment," says McCrossan. "We must be doing what they want."

The Adult Literacy Center offers instruction in two areas: the adult basic skills program for English speakers who need to improve their reading ability and English language instruction for people who speak a foreign language as their native tongue.

The programs are open to all adults, regardless of their economic background, although McCrossan notes that most of the center's clients are working poor. In fact, last year's graduates worked for 175 different employers.

McCrossan stresses the point that most have some kind of employment and are seeking to better themselves or keep pace with their school-educated children.

"They see a growing gap between themselves and their children," says McCrossan.

Last year's literacy center graduates were the parents of 756 school students.

The English language classes are offered as 10- to 12-week programs at four neighborhood sites in Allentown: at Jefferson and Central elementary schools, at the Spanish Apostolate of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church and at Casa Guadalupe.

Basic skills reading instruction takes place at more than 50 sites, but three-quarters of those classes are offered one-on-one.

McCrossan estimates that about 75 percent of the students come from Allentown, about 20 percent from the rest of Lehigh County and about 5 percent from the rest of the Lehigh Valley.